Sen. John Whitmire, left, talks to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, center, and Sen. Kevin Eltife after new rules were adopted Jan. 21 in the Senate Chamber at the Capitol in Austin. Eltife authored changes that led to elimination of the state Senate’s open government committee alongside three others.

Interest in prioritizing open government may wax and wane in the state Legislature. But as the first month of the legislative session draws to a close, a host of bills offered by lawmakers could impact the reach of the state’s sunshine law, the Texas Public Information Act.

While most of those bills seek to carve out exceptions to disclosure in other laws, some legislators have proposed revisions to the Public Information Act to change who is entitled to receive open records, and what they are able to obtain.

State Rep. Mike Schofield, R-Katy, offered a bill Feb. 4 that would allow government entities to refuse service to those who do not live in Texas.

Schofield said the bill is meant to clarify the Public Information Act, which, he said, “has no guts.” It would sharpen the act’s language to let public employees know to whom they must answer — and make clear which requests records custodians may ignore.

“This is a simple bill to say, ‘Texas government is responsive to Texans.’” Schofield said.

The bill was prompted in part by Schofield’s experience working as counsel and adviser to former Gov. Rick Perry, whose office, he said, fielded numerous requests from “outside individuals that would take it upon themselves to decide that they were the lead person on some area of Texas government.” Time spent on those requests should instead be devoted to helping Texans, he said.

UTSW and Parkland were tapped to operate a new Ebola treatment center, despite their track record of infection control failures. The center will be housed in an intensive-care unit at the Methodist Campus for Continuing Care in Richardson.

A Texas health panel’s decision to entrust the operation of a new Ebola treatment center to two Dallas medical institutions with a record of infection control failures has triggered questions from concerned national health-care experts.

They want to know whether Gov. Rick Perry’s Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response even considered that recent history before installing them at the helm of the Richardson facility.

Until late last year, Parkland Memorial Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center were at the center of rare government safety intervention to try to fix what regulators called life-threatening breakdowns in infection prevention and other practices throughout Parkland, Dallas’ safety-net hospital for the poor. UTSW manages clinical care at the facility.

Regulatory violations have ranged from poor hand washing to filthy patient rooms with overflowing trash bins, excrement and blood. Turf battles between the two organizations over money, physician staffing and their divergent missions also have been factors in jeopardizing patient care over the years, we found in our own 2013 investigation.

But state officials aren’t saying whether the regulatory problems or the stormy partnership came into play during the rapid creation of the Ebola center in recent days.

Perry’s Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which helps coordinate the task force’s efforts, declined to answer questions about the decision, only giving the institutions a vote of confidence.

“They already have been training for the strict infection control procedures needed to handle a patient with Ebola,’’ a spokeswoman said.

Dr. Ashish Jha, associate professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, said the public needs an explanation.

“This track record of problems is of course concerning,’’ Jha said “A big question is have they (Parkland and UTSW) really put these problems behind them, and do they understand what caused them? It’s absolutely important for them to address this publicly.’’

“You would assume that the task force recognized the recent history and concluded that the two organizations will be able to work beyond past differences,’’ said Ranga Ramanujam a Vanderbilt University professor who studies organizational factors related to patient safety. He wants to know more about the decision process, he said.

Prosecutors are required to hand over testimony that potentially would be helpful to Cobbs’ defense. In addition, the district attorney’s office has said it will not oppose the release of witness testimony, Hardin said. As a result, Hardin said he won’t have to file a motion for those records.

“We believe Mr. Cobbs’ counsel should be allowed to examine the testimony of the witnesses prior to their taking the stand at trial,” said Rob Drummond, an assistant district attorney.

There has been no discussion of Cobbs reaching a plea agreement, Hardin said.

“I’ve always made it clear it would have to be a trial or a dismissal” of the charges,” he said.

Judge Brown set Sept. 4 as the next hearing for Cobbs, the former chief commercialization officer at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

AUSTIN – A federal judge has wiped out a key part of a jury finding against a Waco company and two of its top executives.

U.S. District Court Judge James Nowlin ruled last week that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had not provided any evidence that Life Partners Holdings; its chief executive officer Brian Pardo; and general counsel R. Scott Peden violated fraud laws in January and February of 2007.

Reuters reported that Nowlin, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, allowed the jury’s decisions to stand holding the company liable on three other charges involving bookkeeping, reporting and certification by the CEO on the company’s financial statements. The jury on Feb. 3 had cleared Life Partners, Pardo, and Peden on eight other charges.

Life Partners is a publicly-traded “life settlements” company that brokers the sale of life insurance policies to investors. The SEC had accused the company of repeatedly misleading investors by underestimating life expectancy results.

The SEC’s civil lawsuit came after Pardo entered the national spotlight in the fall of 2011. I wrote about this here. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Gov. Rick Perry had used Pardo’s private plane to make presidential campaign trips, including to his announcement speech on Aug. 31, 2011 in Charleston, S.C.

AUSTIN – Texas’ cancer-fighting agency already was a hot issue in the 2014 governor’s race before last Friday’s indictment of a former high-ranking official.

Attorney General Greg Abbott's office had a seat on CPRIT's Oversight Committee.

But the felony charge against Jerald “Jerry” Cobbs, who served for three years as the chief commercialization officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, has raised the temperature significantly.

The governor’s race is expected to pit Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott against state Sen. Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat.

After Cobbs’ indictment by a Travis County grand jury was announced, Democrats released a torrent of statements.

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Thursday appointed six members to the revamped governing board of Texas’ cancer-fighting agency, including a high-profile donor to their campaigns, a North Texan and two who previously served.

A law went into effect this year requiring that a new oversight committee be seated for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which has provided hundreds of millions in state money for public and private cancer research.

Lawmakers sought the legislation after The Dallas Morning News reported that Jimmy Mansour, chairman of the previous board, invested in Gradalis, a Carrollton-based firm, that later received a $748,905 award from CPRIT. Mansour said he sold the stock at a “substantial loss” before he and other oversight committee members ratified the grant.

Legislators also expressed concern that six committee members were on the panel in 2010 when it ratified an $11 million award to a Dallas-based biotechnology firm without the required business and scientific reviews.

The third appointing power, House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, is expected to announce the final three appointments to the board soon. Perry, Dewhurst, and Straus are then expected to lift a freeze on CPRIT grants that has been in place since December 2012.

The story, published Sunday, showed that regulators gave the six Texas hospitals nearly $18 million in economic stimulus funds for switching to electronic medical records — despite documented patient-safety and management crises at most of the facilities. The story also raised questions about whether the hospitals actually made “meaningful use” of the records, as required.

“Not only did the Obama Administration take millions of dollars from taxpayers to fund this portion of his so-called ‘stimulus’ plan, it failed to institute a system of checks and balances to safeguard that money from the kind of fraud and abuse alleged in this case,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling. The Dallas Republican represents two of the six small towns where Mahmood’s hospitals operated: Terrell and Grand Saline.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an an Iowa Republican who has long served on the powerful Finance Committee, focused his ire on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency gave two of Mahmood’s hospitals stimulus payments in early 2013 while it was moving to terminate their Medicare funding. Continue reading →

A top U.S. senator today urged governors across the country to review their state requirements for handling the chemical behind the deadly West Fertilizer Co. blast and to adopt policies that will “prevent loss of life.”

“Chemical explosions can have tragic consequences, but best practices can prevent disasters,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, pictured, in a letter to the governors.

During her Capitol news briefing this morning, Boxer also called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to improve enforcement and monitoring at facilities with hazardous chemicals. Our Washington bureau chief, Todd Gillman, has more on The News’ Trailblazers political blog.

You can watch Boxer’s entire 16-minute briefing below and read her letter to the governors on the continuation of this post.

Proposed abortion restrictions have drawn crowds of protesters and supporters to the Capitol in Austin.

Texas legislators resume debate next week on proposed abortion restrictions. Advocates say they want to protect women and unborn children. Opponents say the restrictions would force all but five of the state’s abortion providers to close, infringing on women’s legal rights and endangering their health. Here is some information to consider when weighing the arguments.

What makes HB2 controversial? Three provisions have attracted the most attention:

Abortion clinics would have to begin meeting the infrastructure requirements of facilities that specialize in outpatient surgeries – so-called ambulatory surgical centers. This would mean major new expenses.

Most abortions would be illegal 20 weeks or more after conception. Proponents say fetuses can feel pain by that point; opponents disagree. The current rule is 24 weeks.

Doctors performing abortions would need permission to admit patients at a hospital within 30 miles, in case the pregnant female experiences complications. Some abortion doctors currently lack hospital privileges.

Have similar measures been enacted elsewhere? About half the states have taken some steps like these, sometimes inspiring legal challenges.

How many ambulatory surgical centers perform abortions? Four reported abortions in 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are available. One abortion clinic in Fort Worth recently converted to a surgical center that performs abortions.

Which abortions would Texas permit after 20 weeks? There are two types: those necessary to save the pregnant female’s life or “major bodily function,” and those “performed on unborn children with severe fetal abnormalities.”

Gov. Rick Perry has signed into law a patient safety measure inspired by care failures at Parkland Memorial Hospital, and another similarly tailored bill appears headed for the law books.

The new law, authored by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, requires resident doctors and other trainees in hospitals to wear ID badges that clearly display their names and levels of experience. That measure is intended to help empower patients who may want to summon attending physicians and other veteran providers when problems arise.

A separate bill also sponsored by Nelson mandates that hospitals perform criminal background checks for unlicensed caregivers such as psychiatric technicians. It adds specifics to a loophole in federal hospital rules that require vetting of potential hires without defining the process.

Nelson’s office expects that bill to make it into law by Monday, with or without Perry’s signature. Sunday is the deadline for the governor to sign bills, and her staff has heard no objections from him indicating he would veto the legislation.